UAE’s nuclear regulator said yesterday that it granted a licence to Emirates Nuclear Energy Corp (ENEC) for the construction of the country’s first two nuclear reactors, which will be built by a South Korean-led consortium, a project worth billions of dollars.
Japan’s Fukushima nuclear accident in March 2011 has prompted several countries to think twice about their atomic ambitions but nuclear remains an attractive option for the oil-producing Gulf Arab states, including top oil exporter Saudi Arabia, where power demand is set to soar in the next decade.
The UAE’s nuclear regulator said the construction licence was granted following thorough evaluation of 18 months and this project would avoid mistakes made in Japan.
“We have tried to learn as many lessons as we could from Fukushima, and we asked ENEC to address the issue in a report, which they did,” said William Travers, director general of the Federal Authority of Nuclear Regulation (FANR).
UAE will be the second country in the region that is developing a national nuclear programme after Iran, whose Russian-built Bushehr plant is part of its nuclear programme.
Iran’s atomic ambitions have been characterised by the West as being a front for covertly trying to develop nuclear weapons. Tehran denies the accusation.
“We will continue to be conscious of our responsibility that nuclear power in the UAE is used safely, securely, and only for peaceful purposes,” Travers said in a statement.
Top oil and gas exporters in the region have been working to save their huge oil and gas reserves for export rather than use them to generate electricity and the UAE is not the only one.
Saudi Arabia, home to some of the world’s largest oil and gas fields, is also expected to finalise its atomic energy plans this year in the face of fast-rising demand for electricity driven by booming petro-dollar spending.
In December 2009, the UAE awarded a group led by Korea Electric Power Corp (KEPCO) a contract to build four nuclear reactors to meet surging demand for electricity.
The consortium plans to build and operate the 1,400 megawatt reactors; the first is expected to start operating in 2017, and the others by 2020.
ENEC has been waiting for the licence before it starts pouring concrete for the first two reactors at the Braka site, located on the west of Abu Dhabi. “We have been notified that they will start putting concrete on the site as early as today,” Travers said.
